How AWWA Uses the Cloud to Impact More

Inclusion begins with understanding. To increase interaction between children with and without special needs, and foster greater empathy from a young age, AWWA recently opened its Early Intervention Centre @ Fernvale, residing next to a childcare centre, My First Skool.

This is the latest in the nonprofit’s efforts to create an inclusive community in Singapore, and helping the less privileged and disadvantaged lead dignified and independent lives.

Founded in 1970, AWWA provides a range of community-based programmes and services to people of all ages. These include early intervention services, education for children and youth with special needs, caregivers support, and health and social outreach services for the elderly.

As the nonprofit grew in size and services, it found itself increasingly constrained by its aging IT infrastructure. To streamline its operations and provide better services for its beneficiaries, AWWA decided to implement an organization-wide migration to Office 365.

Thanks to the Microsoft suite of tools, the nonprofit now enjoys better data security and privacy, and the IT team has achieved significant time savings on maintenance and management of their systems.

Staff have also seen an improvement in mobility and collaboration, with tools such as OneDrive allowing them to work on the move, and with colleagues located in different centers. Microsoft Teams was also implemented in five of AWWA’s Early Intervention Centres to improve internal communications.

[caption id="attachment_17415" align="alignnone" width="500"] Microsoft Teams provides a new way for AWWA staff in the Early Intervention Centers to collaborate more seamlessly and efficiently[/caption]

“Microsoft Teams is a well-designed solution that has made collaboration easier between team members,” said Kenneth Chee, Systems Analyst at AWWA. “The chat-based workspace allows us to create channels for projects, and share information and documents easily within the application, increasing the speed and ease of internal communications.”

In the future, AWWA is further considering the use of Azure and Power BI to obtain greater insights into their current services—to provide better care and support for their beneficiaries.

Read the customer story to find out how AWWA revamped its IT infrastructure with Office 365: download the PDF or visit our website